I’m currently listening to All My Friends, an amazing four hour celebration of the music of Gregg Allman. The album includes performance by an incredible selection of rock/country performers and the man himself. Today’s Special Performance post features one of those performances with Gregg and Jackson Browne joining forces on Gregg’s Melissa. For those of you that don’t know, Gregg and Jackson have been friends since the 60s, having once shared an apartment in LA before either of them were successful. This is a really great performance that you don’t want to miss! Enjoy……

I’ve waited way to long to discuss Jason Isbell’s, Southeastern, album that was released last year. It has been on heavy rotation in my car over the past several months.

Jason grew up very close to where I live in North Alabama so I feel compelled to support him based on just that but let me tell you……he deserves my support, and yours, based on raw talent. He is, without a doubt, one the favorite new singer/songwriters that I have discovered in years.

Jason may be best known as a member of Drive By Truckers but for the last 6-7 years he has focused on his solo career. His hard work paid off with the release of Southeastern which was, and continues to be, a huge hit. Tonight I have two of my favorite songs from that album for you. First up is Traveling Alone followed by a live performance of Different Days.

Al Kooper! Now….here’s the story about how Al Kooper saved the day by sitting in on the recording of Like a Rolling Stone without ever having been invited. I pieced this story together from two key sources;

An April 11, 2014 interview with Al that appeared in the Wall Street Journal

The Wikipedia article about Like A Rolling Stone

We will start with the Wikipedia article:

The recording sessions were produced by Tom Wilson on June 15–16, 1965, in Studio A of Columbia Records, 799 Seventh Avenue, in New York City. In addition to Bloomfield, the other musicians enlisted were Paul Griffin on piano, Joe Macho, Jr. on bass, Bobby Gregg on drums, and Bruce Langhorne on tambourine, all booked by Wilson. Gregg and Griffin had previously worked with Dylan and Wilson on Bringing It All Back Home.

On the first day, five takes of the song were recorded in a markedly different style from the eventual release—a 3/4 waltz time, with Dylan on piano. The lack of sheet music meant the song was played by ear. However the essence of the song was discovered in the course of the chaotic session. They did not reach the first chorus until the fourth take, but after the following harmonica fill Dylan interrupted, saying, “My voice is gone, man. You wanna try it again?” This take was subsequently released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.The session ended shortly afterwards.

When the session re-convened the following day, June 16, Al Kooper joined the proceedings as a guest of Tom Wilson. Al picks up the story from this point in the Wall Street Journal interview…….

Question: How did you manage to play on a session you weren’t invited to: “Like A Rolling Stone?”

I was 21 by that time and because I wrote songs I knew a lot of producers. They would hire me to plan on sessions. So I was friends with Dylan’s producer (Tom Wilson). When he found out I was a Dylan fan he invited me to a session, not to play but to sit in the control room and watch. So I thought, I want to play on that record . I was practicing the guitar to be ready and I got there early–I wanted to pull this off before Tom Wilson could stop it. I got there 45 minutes early. But then like five minutes after I got there so did Dylan and he brought Mike Bloomfield. So I heard Bloomfield play and went into the control room where I belonged. I never heard anyone play like that, much less someone who appeared to be my age.

After a couple of rehearsal takes, Wilson moved Griffin from Hammond organ to piano. Al saw his opportunity and jumped at it but he had a couple of challenges to over come. We will let him continue the story from his Wall Street Journal interview:

Question: Then, long story short, you snuck in and played and Wilson didn’t kick you out. Had you played a Hammond organ before?

Yes, but I didn’t know how to turn it on-it’s very complicated. Also I didn’t know how to use all the controls. But (keyboardist Paul Griffin, who had moved to piano for the track) left it turned on and whatever the settings were that’s what I played.

Now let’s go back to the Wikipedia article to finish the story…..

Wilson, surprised to see Kooper at the organ, nevertheless allowed him to play on the track. Upon hearing a playback of the song, Dylan insisted that the organ be turned up in the mix, despite Wilson’s protestations that Kooper was “not an organ player.”

This session saw 15 recorded takes. The song had by now evolved into its familiar form, in 4/4 time with Dylan on electric guitar. After the fourth take—the master take that was released as a single—Wilson happily commented, “That sounds good to me.” Nevertheless, Dylan and the band persisted in recording the song 11 more times.

So, as they say, the rest was history. Al Kooper, an uninvited participant in the recording process, playing an instrument that he really wasn’t very familiar with, managed to improvise an organ riff that became one of the key elements of what is now widely recognized as one of the best songs of all time. That my friends is one of the best stories in rock history in my opinion.

Al went to to have quite a career but we will save most of that story for another day. Let me leave you with just one more tidbit. One of the great things that Al Kooper did later in career was to discover Lynyrd Skynyrd. The signature track of Lynyrd Skynyrd is a little ditty called Free Bird which happens to have a signature organ introduction. Guess who was in the studio playing that organ……yep it was none other that Al. Let’s listen….

The Billboard record charts are the key to understanding the meaning of Gimme Back My Bullets. Lynyrd Skynyrd wasn’t changing their position on gun control…..they were expressing frustration that their songs weren’t doing better on the charts.

Here is the definition of the types of bullets they meant (as captured in wikionary.org)…..

Adjective

with a bullet

(of a hit record) that has entered the charts in a high position, or has climbed rapidly in the charts, or is thought to have the potential for further rapid advancement

“Free The World” has moved up again and is now Number 25 with a bullet on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Charts!!”

There is a significant debate going on in the United States today regarding gun control. I won’t bore you with the specifics of this debate, or my position regarding the debate, but it has reminded me of a related discussion involving Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the 1970s.

In 1975, the group released their Nuthin Fancy album which featured a song called Saturday Night Special. Let’s listen……

I think the meaning of this song was pretty clear….get rid of “Saturday Night Specials”! Note: Saturday Night Special is a slang term for cheap handguns that were very easy to acquire back in the 1970s and accounted for a significant number of murders. This was a surprising message coming from a southern rock group. It caused quite a stir and more than a little backlash from gun rights activists.

The group then proceeded to greatly confuse their position on gun control the very next year by releasing an album named Gimme Back My Bullets. Let’s listen to the title song from the album…..

Many people chose to interpret Gimme Back My Bullets as an indication that the band had changed their minds regarding the gun control message of Saturday Night Special. Gun rights activists celebrated the song and you can still find YouTube videos today using the song to rail against any type of gun control.

The debate of the real meaning of these two, seemingly contradictory, songs continues to this day but I know their real meanings. Post a comment and let me know your thoughts about their meanings. I will do a short post tomorrow and tell you what I know about the topic.

If you have been reading the blog you know I am a fan of Southern Rock. At some point I plan to do a series of posts exploring the history of Southern Rock but until I find the time to pull that together, I thought you might enjoy this BBC documentary on the subject.

My biggest complaint about the documentary was its limited coverage of southern bands other than the Allman Brothers and Lynryd Skynyrd. The Marshall Tucker Band, one of my favorites, that did not get the attention that they deserve, although Doug Gray (the lead singer for the band) was featured. To make up for that omission, watch this video…..